A variety of medical procedures make use of sheaths such as expandable sheaths. For example, in some medical procedures a sheath is placed into the body of a patient to dilate bodily tissue, define and/or create an opening through which additional medical devices may be placed or inserted. Some of the known sheaths are expandable such that the sheath may be placed or inserted within the body of the patient in a first or collapsed configuration. Then once placed within the body of the patient, the sheath may be moved to a second or expanded configuration. Such sheaths also typically define a lumen. Thus, in the expanded configuration, such known sheaths define or create a workable opening or lumen within the body of the patient through which additional medical steps may be performed.
During the placement of such sheaths, however, the sheaths might extend proximate to strictures or narrow portions of the body of the patient. In such instances, some known sheaths may be difficult to maneuver or remove from the body of the patient after the sheath has been expanded. Specifically, some known sheaths may expand such that the expanded sheath expands around a stricture to surround the stricture (often described as “hour-glassing”). As known expandable sheaths are not configured to return to their collapsed configurations, it may be difficult, painful, and/or potentially damaging to the body of the patient to move the expanded portion of the sheath past the stricture.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a sheath that is configured to return to its collapsed configuration such that it would be able to more easily move past a stricture or narrow portion of the body of the patient.